Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics during World War II

by Emilio Zamora

Overview

In Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, Emilio Zamora traces the experiences of Mexican workers on the American home front during World War II as they moved from rural to urban areas and sought better-paying jobs in rapidly expanding industries. Contending that discrimination undermined job opportunities, Zamora investigates the intervention by Mexico in the treatment of workers, the U.S. State Department's response, and Texas' emergence as a key site for negotiating the application of the Good Neighbor Policy. He examines the role of women workers, the evolving political struggle, the rise of the liberal-urban coalition, and the conservative tradition in Texas. Zamora also looks closely at civil and labor rights-related efforts, implemented by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Fair Employment Practice Committee. EMILIO ZAMORA is an associate professor of history and associate of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603440974
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	12/09/2008
Series:	Rio Grande/Río Bravo: Borderlands Culture and Traditions , #15
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

EMILIO ZAMORA is an associate professor of history and associate of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

Foreword Juan Gomez-Quinones ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Wartime Recovery and Denied Opportunities 23

Chapter 3 Elevation the Mexican Cause to a Hemispheric Level 63

Chapter 4 The Fight for Mexican Rights in Texas 97

Chapter 5 The FEPC and Mexican Worker in Texas 125

Chapter 6 The Slippery Slope of Equal Opportunity in the Refineries of the Upper Texas Gulf Coast 158

Chapter 7 Negotiating Mexican Workers' Rights at Corpus Christi 181

Chapter 8 Conclusion 204

Appendix 1 Demographic and Social Patterns among Mexicans in the United States, 1930-1945 223

Appendix 2 Partial List of Mexican FEPC Complainants in Texas, 1943-1945 229

Notes 241

Bibliography 295

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

". . . Emilio Zamora's goals are remarkably ambitious. . . Zamora's argument rests on an impressive array of sources. . . his book does encourage historians to rethink old interpretations and should be widely read." - Kevin Allen Leonard, Journal of Social History

Journal of Social History - Kevin Allen Leonard

". . . Emilio Zamora's goals are remarkably ambitious. . . Zamora's argument rests on an impressive array of sources. . . his book does encourage historians to rethink old interpretations and should be widely read." - Kevin Allen Leonard, Journal of Social History

— Kevin Allen Leonard

Journal of Social History